sauce

American  

[saws] / sɔs /

noun

1. any preparation, usually liquid or semiliquid, eaten as a gravy or as a relish accompanying food.

2. stewed fruit, often puréed and served as an accompaniment to meat, dessert, or other food.

   cranberry sauce.

3. something that adds piquance or zest.

4. Informal. sauciness; impertinence; impudence.

5. Slang. Usually the sauce hard liquor.

   He's on the sauce again.

6. Archaic. garden vegetables eaten with meat.

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verb (used with object)

sauced, saucing

1. to dress or prepare with sauce; season.

   meat well sauced.

2. to make a sauce of.

   Tomatoes must be sauced while ripe.

3. to give piquance or zest to.

4. to make agreeable or less harsh.

5. Informal. to speak impertinently or saucily to.

sauce British  

/ sɔːs /

noun

1. any liquid or semiliquid preparation eaten with food to enhance its flavour

2. anything that adds piquancy

3. stewed fruit

4. dialect vegetables eaten with meat

5. informal impudent language or behaviour

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verb

1. to prepare (food) with sauce

2. to add zest to

3. to make agreeable or less severe

4. informal to be saucy to

sauce Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing sauce

• hit the bottle (sauce)

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Other Word Forms

• oversauce verb (used with object)
• sauceless adjective

Etymology

Origin of sauce

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English, from Middle French, from Late Latin salsa, noun use of feminine of Latin salsus “salted,” past participle of sallere “to salt,” derivative of sāl “salt”; salt ¹

Example Sentences

Desserts, sauces, fruit, and ice cream arrived arranged on a custom gold tray—equal parts presentation and practicality, holding each component neatly in place.

From Salon

Your third-grader happily plows through a plate of rigatoni with meat sauce, one of the few meals he will eat without protest, blissfully unaware that extra vegetables have been blended in for structural support.

From Salon

A tender hunk of goat may follow, gleaming over a sauce that gets its oceanic depth from dried scallops.

From The Wall Street Journal

A drizzle of soy sauce, a scatter of scallions, and always — always — some lemon zest, which cuts through the yolk’s richness and, once blended, produces what my brain now registers as lazy hollandaise.

From Salon

Generous chunks of chicken are coated in a silky, spiced sauce made with crushed tomatoes, cream, onions, garlic, ginger and butter.

From Salon

Related Words

• dressing
• flavoring
• gravy
• relish